Month: January 2020

The Leader’s Debate (RTE)

Rte.ie

Just watched the leader’s debate on RTE tonight. It wasn’t surprising in any way, as no one got landed with a “killer blow”.

They talked about housing mainly and how they planned to build up to 100,000 new homes as social/ affordable homes for our young people who are trapped in their parents home as they cannot afford the crazy prices of houses particularly in Dublin. All the participants indicated that they would greatly increase the number of houses being built. Surprisingly no-one asked why this hadn’t being done already as both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael where effectively in government together for the last four years.

So one has to take all the promises being made with a pinch of salt. Both Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn fein) and Richard Boyd Barret ( People before Profit) put in good performances with Richard Boy Barret making the comment that selling up to €40 billion in Nama properties to developers and vulture funds wasn’t the way to solve a housing crisis.

Mary Lou McDonald mentioned  that Fianna Fail crashed the economy whilst in office and Fine Gael builds the most expensive Children hospital ( at estimated €2.4 billion it certainly is) in the world.  The National Broadband plan doesn’t get a mention at a staggering €3 billion-  3 times the price that Eir/Eircom said they would do it for .

The Greens want to cut the suckler herd by 50% so to cut emissions of methane though they would compensate farmers for the lost production. The other participants disagreed with the Greens on this. More Gardaí were promised to tackle crime, organisation of special units and so on.

Leo Varadkar stressed that you need a strong economy to fund all these commitments and that Fine Gael was the party to deliver this “strong economy” .

Michael Martin was busy attacking Sinn fein on the fact they had voted for the retirement age to be 66 in the North.

General view on the debate was that they were no outright winners or losers in it. Though Sinn fein’s Mary Lou McDonald came out the best.

More would want to be asked about Corporation tax and the fact the banks don’t pay any despite being bailed out by the taxpayer. Other companies like companies like Google don’t pay any tax while making immense profits, though I forget the company that was mentioned in the debate. More has to be done on fair taxation for all.

See the leader’s debate here

https://www.rte.ie/player/series/claire-byrne-live-leaders-debate/SI0000006738?epguid=IH000383124

National Debt Clock.

commodity.com

I came across this on the AN SIONNACH FIONN blog in the comments section, its from someone called “Get Real” debating what to do with all the civil servants in a 32 county situation.  The national debt is quite a sizeable sum of at least €228 billion and that doesn’t include Nama. Well over 50k for each of us -every citizen of the state that’s all thanks to Fianna fail profiteering from being in government. So can we afford a rerun of Fianna fail in government, I think not.

here’s the link

https://commodity.com/debt-clock/ireland

On the Looming Election.

Well here it is election time and its come sooner than we thought. The money was on a May election but fianna fail seem to have pulled the plug on fine gael.

Well what’s to say that there isn’t much of a choice really, two pretty uncool conservative parties that are very similar in policies and very much against the interests of Ireland.  Fianna fail is know for its rampant corruption and the fact that they nearly sunk the “state” while  in power. The people of Ireland got the national debt increased fivefold or more to over €211 billion and that’s not including Nama which has reputely lost €47 billion of the original €74 billion set aside for bad debts owned by banks and builders and property speculators and so on. Nearly “scuttled” the Republic of Ireland with what they did.

Fine gael on the hand makes dodgy deals with state contracts paying 3/4 times the estimated price on items such as the National broadband plan which could have been done for about a billion euro according to Eir/Eircom. Instead the contract is given to a American firm with no experience or expertise in providing rural broadband. Its all payed for by the taxpayer who is treated like a slush fund by corrupt politicians. The National children’s hospital is also way over budget for no particular reason.

Well that’s my view on Fianna fail/ Fine gael everything costs a blooming fortune and you wonder where it all goes ? The other parties are much smaller players than FF/FG and likely to go into coalition with either of the two above. No change  to 26/6 counties is what Boris Johnson wants and is very likely to get.

As usual RTE ( who owe me money for Colm and Jim JIm ) are trying to “skewer” the result by only having  FF/FG leaders in the final debate. Attempting to lead the “electorate” a lot RTE.

So who gets my vote ?

  • A party that will end partition.
  • End the two tier health service.
  • Affordable housing for our young people who can’t get a house without paying silly money for 3 bed semi detached house.
  • Efficient use of people’s taxes.
  • More public transport to carry people where they want to go.
  • Cut down on pollution and increase greener alternatives.

That’s just for starters but does any party measure up ? We will soon find out.

Eoghan Harris and a Border Poll.

Belfast Telegraph

Here’s another newspaper I read today and its an article by Eoghan Harris in the Belfast Telegraph. Its headline is

“Eoghan Harris: The campaign for a border poll could more honestly be called a campaign for a murder poll, it is bound to end in bloodshed”

Its a ridiculous headline, designed to scarce people, its written by Eoghan Harris a man who I dislike intensely. He would regard it as a mistake akin to David Cameron calling the Brexit poll in England. He describes Sinn Fein’s push for a border poll as being “evil”  and stirring the sectarian pot.

Who’s really stirring the sectarian pot here ? It’s one Mr Eoghan Harris who has no sense of Irish nationalism, of justice and of civil rights. Ireland’s history shows that Ireland was partitioned at gun point against the will of the Irish people by the then British government of Lloyd George. It caused a civil war in Ireland and lead to two failed states in the North and South.

A referendum on Irish unity is necessary in the ten years and might be won if the population gets behind it and that includes the Dublin government. A referendum should be able to be held without trouble as everyone claims to be a democrat now. As far as I know the case for a referendum is written in the Good Friday agreement the fig leaf they gave to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in that one sided agreement.

Eoghan Harris is behind the times, on the payroll of London who have a interest in keeping Ireland weak and divided. Even Eileen Paisley (wife of loyalist firebrand Ian Paisley) says that she would accept a United Ireland if there was religious freedom, which we should surely manage.

Mr Harris should stuff his Opinions up his you know where.

You can read his article here –

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/eoghan-harris-the-campaign-for-a-border-poll-could-more-honestly-be-called-a-campaign-for-a-murder-poll-it-is-bound-to-end-in-bloodshed-38823217.html

Eileen Paisley’s Opinion is here –

How Time has moved on….

Google and Taxes

Just came across this News story online. It says that Google Ireland Holdings paid nearly $50 billion in dividends to its US parent in the last two years and paid absolutely no taxes to the Irish Government on its immense profits. One would ask how they managed to do this? Google employs over 8,000 people in Ireland but that doesn’t justify not paying taxes. Why are they loopholes that allow for this level of tax avoidance or tax evasion really. Everyone is supposed to pay their fair share so as pay for services the Government is supposed to provide. We seem to be at the mercy of predatory US multinationals who don’t pay there fair share of taxes. To be honest I couldn’t manage to pay no taxes so how does Google ? Time to change the laws to stop this level of tax avoidance.

You read the article here.
google pays no Taxes